[staysharp]

At the time, I was never aware that I was lucid dreaming, but now I realize I was.

When I was younger I used to have a dream almost every single night in which I could fly. I would simply bend my knees and straighten them forcefully and quickly and I would take off and be in complete control of where I went.
It was brilliant, as I often had nightmares in which people would be chasing me and after running for some time I'd fly away leaving the person chasing me bewildered.
Then one night I dreamt that I was running from someone and decided I'd fly away, I took off and then to my surprise I looked over and the person chasing me was flying right next to me, chasing me through the skies. Out of surprise and fright I woke myself up.
After that I had many dreams in which I would try to fly, but I never could.

Then a few years later I was still having dreams in which I was being chased and I would try to escape by flying but never could. After this happened many times I decided to try and wake myself up whenever I had these dreams instead of unsuccessfully trying to fly. So each time a dream turned into a nightmare I would stop whatever I was doing in the dream and close my eyes really tight and then suddenly open them as wide as I could. 99% of the time this would wake me up immediately and if it didn't I would simply try it again until it did.

I'm not sure if I still have the ability to do these things as I rarely have nightmares or any form of dream that I can remember. But as of a few months ago I've been trying to lucid dream once again.